Yearly Goals Check In

Each day when I open my journal where I write my morning pages, I see my yearly goals in front of me.  I like that because it helps keep me centered for the day on the things I need to accomplish.  So many times we hear of how our “New Year’s Resolutions” have failed.  A few of my goals have fallen by the side of the road, but others have bloomed.  I thought at the beginning of each month I would share with you how mine are going.  This first one is a bit late because the regular flu and stomach flu derailed all writing, but I am feeling better, so off we go.

                The hardest one is where I will start.  When I thought of it, I knew in the back of my mind I would fail.  However, being optimistic, I thought if I wrote it down and blogged it that by some miracle I would succeed.  No such luck.  I haven’t even done it once.  Daily Mass.  Yes, I go to Sunday Mass every weekend even when I don’t feel great.  I could make up a hundred excuses why I haven’t attended even one Mass, but none of them are relevant.  The fact of the matter is I haven’t and won’t.  I will try again next year.

                Hum, with this, I can flow right into discipline my word for the year.  I have had no discipline in attending Mass during the week.  With my word, I was hoping I would keep my house cleaner.  Some days I have done really well and on others, not so great.  Part of my problem with a clean house is I don’t truly believe in a clean house.  Now, it isn’t terribly horrible like those reality television shows that I can’t even handle the commercials, but neither would I want neat freaks to show up at my door unannounced.  I believe life comes before cleaning: hanging out with kids, enjoying a good book, studying something, crocheting, gardening, chatting with hubby, editing one more page, or writing 100 more words.  Thus, my house isn’t the cleanest, but I will continue to plug away at it.

                My word has come into play with my editing and writing goals for the year.  Last month, I rocked my goals.  I hit the total counts by the 15^th and kept going.  I had hoped to double my goals, but volunteering for my daughter’s activities got in the way.  I still did an extra 12,000 words and 10 hours.  I am very happy to count the month a grand success in my writing journey.

                My Bible reading has also been going really well.  I think I missed three days during the month.  The day after I would read both days and continue on schedule.  I can officially say I have read 1/12 of the Bible.  Granted with all the reading I have done in the past, I have read more, but the fraction is for this year.  I am mighty excited that I am taking advantage of such supportive words that help my heart sore.  I am so thankful Saint Jerome did the original translation to get all those books into Latin.  When I think of the tedious task of translating, reading the Bible is so much easier.

I have enjoyed my time with Saint Jerome as I read information about him.  He is one of 33 Doctors of the Catholic Church.  To be a doctor, there are three parts: holiness, depth of doctrinal insight, and an extensive body of writings.  Jerome is known as an Ecumenical Father because he lived during the golden age, 300-600AD.  On my kindle, I am reading The Principle Works of St. Jerome.  He is an extremely intellectual writer.  Half the time I am reading I feel like the words are flying off the page before I can stuff them into my thoughts.  I have highlighted some passages, but I have no idea what to really write about them.  The one thing I find fascinating about Jerome is his ability to pull multiple passages from the Bible to get his points across to the reader.  I feel like a child again sitting next to my Grandmother trying to keep up with Pastor Wade by looking up all the references, intense. 

I know because of Jerome, I will not look at fasting quite the same way.  I never thought of these two Biblical stories when fasting.  “… by them you will understand why the first man, obeying his belly and not God, was cast down from paradise into this vale of tears; and why Satan used hunger to tempt the Lord Himself in the wilderness;….”  Gluttony is a sin and a sin I struggle with.  Satan uses this against us just as he did with Adam and Eve and even Jesus Himself.  As Lent fast approaches (next week), we are called to fast.  Why?  Food is a way for Satan to enter our lives through temptation.  By participating in fasting, we make ourselves stronger.  Adam and Eve failed the test and I fail it quite often.  Jesus shows us success.

Blessings to you all.